Woman accused of leaving son’s body in suitcase in Indiana to stand trial in Louisville
Washington County Prosecutor Tara Coats Hunt said the venue change “ensures the strongest legal foundation and prevents any future appellate ruling from overturning a conviction due to a technicality.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — A woman accused of killing her son and leaving his body in a suitcase three years ago was set to stand trial in southern Indiana next year, but the case was dismissed and her trial was moved to Louisville.
Washington County Prosecutor Tara Coats Hunt announced the update in a Dec. 9 Facebook post:
According to the post, a Jefferson County, Kentucky, grand jury returned an indictment Dec. 8 against Dejuane Anderson in the homicide case involving the death of 5-year-old Cairo Jordan. She’s now facing charges of murder, manslaughter, criminal abuse and abuse of a corpse. She’ll appear in court Dec. 15, and a judge already set a $500,000 bond.
Anderson was charged after a mushroom hunter found 5-year-old Jordan’s body stuffed in a suitcase in rural Washington County in 2022. At the time, investigators said the child was clean, clothed and showed no signs of being placed in the suitcase alive. They believed Cairo died in Indiana before being left in the woods.
Anderson’s trial was originally scheduled for October 2025 in Washington County but was moved to Jan. 6, 2026.
She was arrested in California on March 15, 2024, after two years on the run. During her first court appearance after her arrest, Anderson made bizarre claims — including that she was a “princess” and that she was “representing the entity of Anderson.” She also told the court that a “Space Force military detail” was following her.
Online, her posts turned increasingly disturbing. Just a month before Cairo’s death, she wrote about “living with a demonic child.”
Anderson was committed to a psychiatric facility in August 2024 and eventually found fit to stand trial.
Another woman charged in Cairo’s murder — Dawn Coleman, of Shreveport, Louisiana — pleaded guilty to aiding, inducing or causing murder, neglect of a dependent resulting in death and obstruction of justice. She was sentenced to 30 years in prison, with five years suspended to probation.
The venue change was granted after Hunt requested Jefferson County Commonwealth’s Attorney Gerina Whethers review the investigation into Cairo’s murder and consider presenting the case to a grand jury. Anderson will now be prosecuted by Whethers and her office.
Hunt’s post said the complex case involves facts and evidence spanning both Indiana and Kentucky, and she decided to move the case to Jefferson County for a better chance of conviction.
“Although Washington County has been fully prepared to prosecute this case, shifting jurisdiction ensures the strongest legal foundation and prevents any future appellate ruling from overturning a conviction due to a technicality,” she wrote.
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Mom allegedly beat child to death with belt, hid body in suitcase before making up abduction report
Friday, June 13, 2025
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New details have been revealed in the case of a Maryland woman who claimed her child was abducted in Delaware, only to be charged later with the child’s murder.
NORTH EAST, Md. (WPVI) — New details have been revealed in the case of a Maryland woman who claimed her daughter was abducted at gunpoint in Delaware, only to be charged with the girl’s murder less than 24 hours later.
Darrian Randle, 31, of North East, Maryland, is being charged with murder and related offenses in the death of 3-year-old Nola Dinkins.
Police say Randle told them that Nola was taken by a man at gunpoint in Newark, Delaware, on Tuesday night after she had pulled over on the side of the road. That report prompted an Amber Alert, which was later canceled.
However, charging documents show that Randle eventually admitted that the story was made up.
She allegedly told police that she struck the child 15 to 20 times with a belt during the daytime hours on Monday.
Nola fell to the ground and was not moving. Randle allegedly said she picked up Nola and realized she wasn’t breathing.
She told police she called for her boyfriend, 44-year-old Cedrick Britten, who attempted CPR, but realized the child was dead.
Randle allegedly told police she and Britten placed Nola’s body in her car and drove around, but ended up back home.
Mother of missing 3-year-old girl in Delaware charged with murder
She placed Nola’s body in a suitcase and placed it on the basement stairs, documents show.
Randle and Britten gave differing accounts of who moved the body, but after interviews with both of them, police say they were able to locate the suitcase in a vacant Cecil County lot.
The human remains inside, described by police as those of an “emaciated child,” were found wrapped in plastic wrap.
Meanwhile, court documents out of Indiana detail a custody battle between Randle and Nola’s biological father. He tried to stop her from leaving Indiana this year.
Randle remains jailed in Delaware awaiting extradition to Maryland.
Britten had a bail hearing in Maryland on Thursday morning. His most serious charges are for accessory after the fact of murder.
He made bail and is currently out on home detention, according to the Cecil County state’s attorney.
Cairo Jordan case: Where mother’s murder trial stands years after son’s body found in suitcase
In April 2022, Cairo Jordan’s body was found stuffed inside a suitcase and dumped in a wooded area of Washington County.
Credit: WHAS11 News
Dejaune Anderson is accused of killing her 5-year-old son, Cairo Jordan.
Author: Joseph Garcia
Published: 4:00 PM EDT April 16, 2025
Updated: 4:42 PM EDT April 16, 2025
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It’s been three years since a mushroom hunter discovered 5-year-old Cairo Jordan’s body in rural southern Indiana. The child’s mother is now expected to stand trial in his death later this year after numerous delays.
On April 16, 2022, Jeff Meredith found Cairo’s body stuffed inside a suitcase left in the middle of the woods, about 80 feet off a roadway, in rural Washington County.
“When I first saw that little feller, immediately, I felt that he was telling me ‘Help me, I need help,'” Meredith recalled just days after Indiana State Police (ISP) announced it needed the public’s help in identifying the young boy.
For six months, despite combing through national registries for missing children, all investigators knew about the unidentified boy was how he died – an electrolyte imbalance, likely caused by dehydration.
Credit: Courtesy of WSB via family
5-year-old Cairo Jordan was found dead inside a suitcase in rural Indiana in April. His mother and another woman are charged in his death.
And finally in late October of 2022, investigators shared the young boy’s name was Cairo Jordan.
Police also announced charges against two suspects in his death: a woman named Dawn Coleman, who was already in custody, and Cairo’s mother, Dejaune Anderson.
The two women had a history of run-ins with law enforcement agencies across the country, including in Louisville.
Latest on criminal trials in Cairo’s death
In November 2023, Coleman pleaded guilty to aiding, inducing or causing murder, neglect of a dependent resulting in death, and obstruction of justice for her role in Cairo’s death.
She was sentenced to 25 years in prison with five years of probation as part of a plea deal.
Credit: WHAS11 Nelson Reyes
Dawn Coleman, one of the women accused of killing Cairo Jordan, appears in court for sentencing. | Nov. 21, 2023.
According to court documents, Coleman told police she walked into a bedroom of the trio’s Louisville home and found Anderson on top of Cairo.
The boy was face-down on the mattress and court documents claim Coleman told investigators, “It was already done.”
Coleman said she helped Anderson put Cairo’s body in the suitcase before they drove across the Ohio River into southern Indiana, where she dumped it in the woods.
RELATED: Cairo Jordan’s mom believed he was possessed by demon, contacted exorcist days before body was found
Anderson was arrested last March, ending a two-year-long nationwide manhunt. She’s charged with murder, neglect of a dependent resulting in death, and obstruction of justice.
In the months after her arrest, Anderson sought to represent herself at trial. She’s also claimed her public defender was a relative of former President Joe Biden, that she’s been placed under MK Ultra mind control within jail, and accused a court clerk and Judge Larry Medlock of committing fraud in more than 30 handwritten motions since her arraignment last April.
Credit: WHAS11 News
Dejaune Anderson (left) and Judge Larry Medlock (right) discuss her motion for self-representation during arraignment. | April 2, 2024
She’s also pushed back against court-ordered psychiatric exams, delaying court hearings multiple times.
Medlock eventually ruled against Anderson’s motion to represent herself last August. He also ordered her to undergo treatment at an Indiana psychiatric facility until she was ready to stand trial, further delaying her murder trial.
On Feb. 5, 2025, Medlock said Anderson had completed her treatment and was now cooperating with her court-appointed attorney. She also retracted all her previous statements accusations against the judge and her attorney.
Anderson’s next court hearing in Cairo’s death is scheduled for May 8.
Her trial is expected to begin on Oct. 7, 2025.
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